Hughes glad he took Pools job

Hartlepool boss John Hughes has no regrets about moving south of the border to lead the club's fight for League One survival.

Pools were rooted to the foot of the table, without a win in 14 league matches, when Hughes quit as manager of Livingston to replace Neale Cooper at Victoria Park in November. In their nine league games since, Pools have won one, drawn two and lost six and remain bottom of the table, 12 points adrift of safety, but Hughes is relishing the challenge and insists he has not once had second thoughts. "No, certainly not," the 48-year-old said. "I was under no illusions when I arrived and the response from the players has been good. "We've not had the luck, I have to say that. I'm not using it as an excuse, but in three or four games we should have taken something, if not won it, but I've seen an upturn in performance levels. "There is a consistency to our game and we have played some nice football. For the most part we've had to cut out the expansive football I like my sides to play in order to make sure we're hard to beat and we have benefited from that. "The next stage in our progression is to become even harder to beat, to be galvanised and to pick up results. We must start to win games to have any kind of belief that we can stay in the division. "It's a very fine line in football management. We should have got something from the Preston game. We were good enough to have taken at least a point and then we would be sat here talking about being unbeaten in three matches. "But the commitment from the players and their attitude, I certainly see it coming and we'll keep working to improve that spirit."